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Hola Amigos. We have been in Arequipa for about 5 days now and have been up to a lot. On our train ride from Chile to Peru we met a couple from Sweden who we have spent most of our time in Arequipa with. Our first day was spent visiting the Museo Santuary where the ´ice princess´ is kept. She is a young (14) Incan girl who was sacrificed on one of the Volcanoes in Arequipa approximately 500 years ago in order to appease to mountain gods. Because of the cold tempuratures at that altitude she is very well preserved, as are many of the things which she was buried with. (Alison, Juanita was not there as she is removed for preservation from jan-april but another mummie was there instead). The museum was very interesting and the showing of her body was done quite tastefully.
We then went to the Santa Catalina Monestary which takes up an entire city block and is often referred to as 'a city within the city'. It was an amazing , yet eerie, place to see and there are still a couple dozen nun who live within it walls. Although they only inhabit a very small section of the monestary now.
Two of our last five days were spenton a tour into the Colca Canyon to sight the flight of the Condors. The tour was very interesting and we were able to see all sorts of wildlife and beautiful scenery. The Colca Canyon is over twice as deep as the Grand Canyon, and because of the updrafts many condors fly right over your head. We also spent the night in the village of Chivay on our tour where we were able to take part in traditional dances and watch traditional music being performed. It was a very neat experience although the whole thing was set up specifically for tourists as they herded all the tourists in towninto one room and sold very expensive food and drinks. Michael and I were both asked to take part in the dances and we have uploaded some pictures of this experience.
We have just added two albums of our trip so far (unfortunately al of our best pictures are on Michaels camera and haven't been transferred off of it yet. We will add them when we have the opportunity). We hope everyone is doing well at home. Miss you all.
Kristy and Michael
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